Court upholds firing of LAPD officers who ignored robbery to chase 'Snorlax' in Pokémon Go

LOS ANGELES (TND) — A court has denied the appeal from two officers who were fired for playing Pokémon Go instead of responding to an active robbery in 2017.

Court documents say former Los Angeles police officersLouis Lozano and Eric Mitchell ignored a commanding officer's backup request and instead decided to chase down a "Snorlax," a type of Pokémon, who had just appeared in their mobile phone game,Pokémon Go.

As court documents detail, a commanding officer had heard a call for a robbery in progress, and attempted to reach out to Lozano and Mitchell, but didn't get a response. The robbery was at a mall.

Recordings of the officers, obtained from theirdigital in-car video system (DICVS), revealed the officers apparently ignored the call for backup on purpose.

The former officers reportedly put out a radio code indicating they were in a different area, hiding the fact they were nearby the mall.

“I don’t want to be his help,” Lozano allegedly tells Mitchell after hearing the backup request. Minutes later, Mitchell can be heard telling Lozano a Snorlax had“just popped up” at “46th and Leimert.”

Court documents say for the next 20 minutes of recording, the officers can be heard discussingPokémon as they drove around attempting to catch some in the game.

While the officers didn't catch any robbers, the court documents and recordings do indicate they did catch a Snorlax.

Holy crap. Finally,” the recording catches Mitchell saying after he successfully snags the Snorlax. “The guys are going to be so jealous.

Pokémon Go is a popular mobile phone game that uses GPS data and phone cameras to provide an augmented reality where players can catch "pocket monsters" who appear nearby players' locations in the real world.

The game is based on Nintendo's popular franchise of the same name,Pokémon, and had an incredibly high amount of players after its initial release in summer 2016.

Following an internal misconduct investigation where the officers initially only claimed to have been talking about Pokémon Go instead of playingit, the officers were fired, court documents say.

The officers appealed their firing, saying, among other things, the use of the DIVCS system to use their own private conversation against them was against department rules. The appeals court has disagreed with them, according to the Los Angeles Times, and the appeal was denied.

The attorney for the officers told the LA Times the officers are "obviously disappointed" and are "considering how to proceed".